Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, left, speaks as First Selectman Pat Llodra listens during the community meeting at Newtown High School discussing the fate of Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, Jan. 18, 2013.

Legislative council member Mary Ann Jacob speaks her opinion during the community meeting at Newtown High School discussing the fate of Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. Jacob works as a library clerk at Sandy Hook Elementary School and is a parent of two former Sandy Hook Elementary students.

First Selectman Pat Llodra, left, fields questions from residents as State Representatives, from left, Dan Carter, DebraLee Hovey and Mitch Bolinsky listen during the community meeting at Newtown High School discussing the fate of Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, Jan. 18, 2013.

Newtown Board of Education Chairman Debbie Leidlein affirms her committment in keepin the Sandy Hook Elementary School students together and not going through with redistricting while speaking at the community meeting at Newtown High School discussing the fate of Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, Jan. 18, 2013.

NEWTOWN -- The raw-edged emotion of a day this community will never forget -- Dec. 14, when 20 first-graders, four teachers and two administrators became the victims of a rifle-wielding gunman -- was palpable Friday night as town and school leaders heard voice after voice appeal to officials to raze Sandy Hook Elementary School.

While a few of the 150 or so who attended this informal hearing favored remodeling or renovating the existing building, most of the speakers -- some former students, some parents, one a Monroe policeman -- pleaded to tear down the school and erect a memorial to the 26 lives lost.

As First Selectman Pat Llodra, U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty and a host of local officials listened, many residents said they favored rebuilding a school elsewhere in the Sandy Hook neighborhood.

Esty said the federal government stands ready to help Newtown carry out anything the town decides to do.

Lifelong Sandy Hook resident and former student Jackie Hornack's voice quavered as she said the school is now "sacred ground,'' and it would "be disrespectful to keep that school up and running.''

Her sentiments were echoed during what was the second community conversation about the future of the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Like Hornack, many suggested it is too much to ask of teachers, staff, and families of both victims and survivors to return to what once was a place of love, laughter and learning but is now home to one of the worst school massacres in the nation.

A number of speakers said they believe the last word, though, should be had by those most impacted -- families of the victims and the faculty who are the heart and soul of Sandy Hook School.

"You can't ask anybody to go back in there. ... They can't make that drive down the driveway," said Todd Keeping, a Sandy Hook resident and Monroe police officer who asked to be assigned to the relocated Sandy Hook School in the former Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe.

Keeping said he visited the original Sandy Hook site two days after the crime and "it's not a school anymore.''

The one worry some people expressed was that the Sandy Hook School community could somehow be scattered between other district elementary schools. Board of Education Chairman Debbie Leidlein assured them that the board voted unanimously this week against redistricting that school community.

Mary Ann Jacob, a Sandy Hook library clerk, resident, parent and Legislative Council member who was in the school on the day of the shooting, did not take a firm position.

Rather, she said her wish is that Sandy Hook have a school in their community "somewhere.'' She said the outpouring of support from all over the globe has been "incredible.''

Whenever Jacob wonders what direction to go on this issue, she said, she asks, "What would Dawn do?'' She is referring to Principal Dawn Hochsprung, whose own life was lost as she tried to thwart the heavily armed killer.

"We need to remember who we are as a community, and stay together," Jacob said. "It's not about us, it's about our kids.''